TVNZ promises a summer of sport

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 19

TVNZ promises a summer of sport

Summer is the season ot exciting sports action and TVNZ will be in the forefront with coverage of the major summer sporting events at home and abroad. “The emphasis will be on the traditional summer events,” says Keith Quinn, TVNZ’s southern editor of sports and the man responsible for all sports coverage from the Wellington region south.

“This year, in addition to the regular tennis, motorcycle racing, motor-racing, and racing coverage we’ve got an overseas cricket tour going on, the Women’s World Softball Championships, a series of matches involving the soccer team from the Soviet Union, and the arrival of the Whitbread Round-The-World yachts. All in all it’s one of the busiest summers we’ve had in years,” he says.

The World Cup cricket matches between New Zealand, Australia and India will be broadcast live by satellite from January 9. There will also be extensive coverage of the reciprocal Australian tour of New Zealand from February to Easter Saturday. TVNZ will provide 30 hours coverage over nine days in late January of the Women’s World Softball

Championships in which New Zealand is the defending champion. The summer racing and trotting carnivals will be featured with live coverage of the most important races, including the Auckland and Wellington Cups, the Auckland Trotting Cup on February 8 and the TVNZ Miracle Mue at Addington on February 15. The three clashes be-

tween the All Whites and the Soviet Union’s soccer team will be broadcast, as well as a mid-week latenight sports special of the Wellington match. The Whitbread Around The World yachts will arrive at Auckland during January and TVNZ will provide coverage of the arrival of the leading yachts as well as extensive coverage of their departure on February 15.

Other sports events to be covered include the New Zealand International Motor-Cycling Series in December-January, the Nissan 500 waterfront race for international group A saloon cars on January 25 and 26, the Benson and Hedges Open Tennis Tournament in early January, international show-jumping, the Auckland International Marathon, cycling and track and field events.